Connecticut
Family Avoids Meddlesome Meeting
Sometimes home schoolers seem to know the law better than school officials. The Norwich Public Schools superintendent of schools recently informed a Home School Legal Defense Association family that they were required to schedule a meeting to review their curriculum and establish an assessment of their program. Neither of these are required under Connecticut law, so the family called HSLDA.
Dewitt Black, the HSLDA attorney responsible for matters involving our members in Connecticut, immediately wrote to the superintendent, explaining that the superintendent’s actions were contrary to the guidelines for home schooling which have been promulgated by the state board of education. The only meeting which is to take place between the parents and public school officials is at the time of the annual portfolio review—the purpose of which is “to determine if instruction in the required courses has been given.” There is no legal basis for requiring evaluation of the students’ academic progress, review of standardized test results, examination of attendance records, or review of curriculum materials.
After receiving attorney Black’s letter, the school district dropped its request to meet with the family until the end-of-year portfolio review.
The Norwich Public School District’s unfamiliarity with the home school law also surfaced in another area this year. The district sent out a form to home schooling families that looked like the standard form developed by the Connecticut State Board of Education. However, the form contained an additional requirement that parents indicate what curriculum they were using, which is not required under the state guidelines. When an HSLDA member family called the school district, they were told that the state board had changed the form.
After receiving another letter from Dewitt Black, the school district admitted that the form was actually one that had been modified and approved by the local school board. The district then dropped the request for curriculum information.
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Connecticut
Connecticut’s Charter Oak gained such fame for its role in preserving the Connecticut charter from seizure by the royal governor that it became fashionable to own a product supposedly made from its trunk. It was said that Charter Oak products included walking sticks, dog collars, needle cases, three-legged stools, dinner tables, tenpin alleys, and toothpicks—enough alleged Charter Oak to build a plank road from Hartford to Salt Lake City.
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